Town Square

A terrible waste of State money

Many Californians are upset about how much money the State wastes each year. Many residents of San Ramon were upset by City Manager, Herb Moniz's high salary. Yet hardly anyone is paying attention to a waste of almost 1/3 billion (with a B) dollars in this State every year. This outrageous expense could be reduced or eliminated by spending a mere $50 once and $40 each following year.

Not only is so much money being wasted, it is spent on something most residents of the Tri-Valley would find appalling, killing homeless dogs and cats. Yes according to the State Controller's website, $300M is spent annually euthanizing unwanted animals. That's right, half-a-million dogs, cats, puppies, kittens, bunnies, and other small animals are killed (lets use the right word here) by County and City Animal Control agencies at a staggering cost of almost 1/3 Billion dollars every year.

Why are so many animals put to death each year in California? Are these unwanted pets or strays? In some cases yes, but most are unplanned and unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. Many adoptable puppies and kittens find homes, but then they take the place of potentially adoptable dogs and cats only a year or two older than that cute puppy or kitten. Many older animals needing homes would be adopted if there were fewer unplanned litters.

A female cat can have two to three litters a year, with 3 to 5 kittens in each litter, from the time she is 6 months old to 15 years if she lives that long. So spaying a young female cat could prevent as many as 10 kittens a year for 10 to 15 years and all of the kittens her kittens would have. You can see how quickly this builds up; so spaying and neutering cats and dogs could reduce the pet overpopulation tens of thousands in a few short years.

Some of you may recall that the State Assembly tried to pass a Spay and Neuter bill a few years ago and the Breeder Lobby killed it. This isn't another Spay and Neuter bill or another State law or an increase in animal license fees.

Instead this is a voluntary program to replace the license plate on your car. The [Web Link CA Spay Plate] is a new Special Interest License Plate that would provide funding for low or no cost spay and neuter clinics to reduce the amount of pet overpopulation by reducing the number of animals born each year.

There's no penalty to breeders in the CA Spay Plate program. In fact they would have a bigger market if fewer puppies and kittens are available for adoption or free in supermarket parking lots. So this is a win-win for everyone in California – dog lovers, cat lovers, and frugal folks who don't like to see the government wasting money on something so pointless.

Right now this program needs you! The State requires a minimum pre-order of 7500 of these Special Interest license plates before giving the go-ahead to offer them through the DMV. The preorder period is up in July, 2012 and so far only 3200 plates have been ordered. The program needs another 4300 orders to move ahead. It would be a shame for this program to fail because 4300 drivers either don't know or don't care about saving animals and money.

Most residents of the Tri-Valley can afford an extra $50 to $100 a year to reduce State spending on this waste. People around here drive expensive luxury cars, but if you really want to show off your car, [Web Link preorder a CA Spay Plate] to put on it. Then when you take your dog to the dog park (how about the new Bark and Ride), you will be appreciated by all the dogs and their owners. Tell everyone at the dog park or the next cat show you attend to preorder a CA Spay Plate now too.

CA Spay Plates are limited to six characters because of Pierce Brosnan's artwork. If your license uses a 7-digit number, a new 6-digit number will be assigned for a $50 sequential plate. For an additional $48, you can preorder a 6-character personalized plate. If you have a personalized plate with 7 characters, you will need to shorten it to 6 characters or come up with a 6-character alternative. I preordered SPCATS for my Focus.

I asked Judie Mancuso, President of the California Spay & Neuter License Plate Fund, Inc., what would happen if the 7500 preorders are not received by the July 2012 deadline.

"In the unlikely event, we would refund everyone’s money and the project would be over, which would be awful for California’s pets. This specialty license plate gives us a sustainable funding mechanism for spay and neuter throughout the state that we cannot achieve on such a large scale with any other program. We would not start over. This has already cost over $100k that we received from an angel donor used for marketing, and thousands of volunteer hours."

It would be terrible to miss this great opportunity to save so much money and spare so many helpless animals from the horror of euthanasia. If you have one car, please preorder a CA SPAY PLATE now. If you or other family members have more than one car, preorder a CA SPAY PLATE for each one. Let's make sure millions of dollars are not wasted on killing helpless animals in California anymore.

This story contains 920 words.

If you are a paid subscriber, check to make sure you have
logged in.
Otherwise our system cannot recognize you as having full free access to our site.

If you are a paid print subscriber and haven't yet set up an online account,
click here
to get your online account activated.

Comments

Like this comment

Posted by Marla
a resident of Walnut Creek
on Sep 19, 2011 at 9:40 am

I have already pre-ordered mine, did it the first week these came out. It's a great way to help the animals in this county and state, plus it's a nice looking plate. So everyone who cares about animals should get on board and order one.

Posted by the dogfather
a resident of Danville
on Sep 22, 2011 at 7:08 am

Excuse me, ma'am, but who are you to assume that "there are a lot of other worthier causes out there than animals?"

And who are you to presume that you should tell other people how to spend their money?

I mean, my canines have certain limitations (for instance, they find it difficult to use this keyboard, so I'm doing it for them), but they asked me to make you aware that they know better than to pass judgment on other people's choices.

Posted by the dogfather
a resident of Danville
on Sep 22, 2011 at 8:44 am

A donation has been made in your name to the American Association of Judgmental People with Too Little To Do. I anticipate that they will promptly write back to give me excellent advice about my values and the state of my mental health.

Cathy, I’m on your side. However, “dogfather” is allowed to have “his” opinion, I’m sure “he” only eats things that are grown from the dirt and never owned a leather belt. I on the other hand, believe that God gave us brains and means to survive.

Posted by San Ramon Oberver
a resident of San Ramon
on Sep 22, 2011 at 12:07 pmSan Ramon Oberver is a registered user.

Cathy and other dog haters here, explain to me how saving the state the expense of $300M a year to execute dogs and cats helps people. Maybe if the state wasn't spending so much on killing healthy animals, it could spend more on helping sick people. Then you would be able to get some much needed anger management therapy.

I just value human life over pets. Doesn't mean I hate them, just means that if I have the choice, I choose humans. People are more important than animals. There will ALWAYS be unwanted animals that need to be euthanized, and if you don't think so, you are living in a fantasy world.

Observer: I also never said I am a dog hater. I just choose not to have one because I am done cleaning up after my toddlers and don't want to clean up after a dog. I admit I never read the article, I was just commenting on the comments. I think dogs serve a great purpose for those who want to have a dog.

Posted by jrm
a resident of Vista Grande Elementary School
on Sep 22, 2011 at 2:48 pm

Cathy..I hope you will pause and reflect on Roz's question posed to you in her last thread, it really hit the nail on the head. If someone wants a special license plate to support Yosemite so be it. If someone wants a special plate to support education so be it. If someone wants a special plate to support whales so be it. Why for goodness sake should you care? I lost my wife and both parents to cancer but that doesn't mean I should ONLY support the Susan B. Koman
Foundation. I almost wonder if you aren't exactly the kind of person that would see the world a bit more positively if you had a furry friend who thought you were the reason for living each day.

Posted by San Ramon Oberver
a resident of San Ramon
on Sep 22, 2011 at 6:56 pmSan Ramon Oberver is a registered user.

Marie,

Please read the article. It's about saving state money, not implying dogs are more important than people. It says it's a stupid way to waste money. If Cathy thinks people are so smart, why are we wasting so much money so stupidly? $50 isn't a lot to spend or waste on a dog or cat. $300M is! Do the math.

Rick this isn't intended to be a controversial blog. It's intended to get support for CA Spay Plates. If you don't want one, don't buy one, but why bash anyone else who does?

As I said back in my San Ramon Observer blog on the San Ramon Express, this is why I prefer to live in San Ramon and not Danville.

Cathy, you turned jrm's sentiments around to suit your opinion. jrm, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe your point is that each individual should have the opportunity to choose where to contribute their money - not that contributions should only benefit the human race.

I agree with that wholeheartedly. It is wonderful that in these difficult times, people still find the means and have the desire to make donations toward a cause they have passion about - or at least deem worthy.

I wouldn't be so arrogant as to decided what is/should be important to someone else - we all march to a different drummer.

Posted by the dogfather
a resident of Danville
on Sep 22, 2011 at 7:19 pm

You know, Cathy, your preoccupation with this thread seems to demonstrate that you really DON'T have enough to do with your own time. Reading comp could use some work, as well.

I visited a friend of mine yesterday, who runs an animal shelter in the Bay Area. We met in her office, where she introduced me to a five-month old puppy. Both his rear legs had been broken, and were not well-healed -- and he was found, discarded like so much garbage, In A Dumpster, on trash day.

Despite all the unspeakably cruel things that humans had done to him, when he saw me, he thumped his tail on the floor. And then he stood up, with difficulty, and limped over to meet me. As I patted him and massaged him behind the ears, he leaned into my hands and looked up at me with with the clearest, most trusting eyes you could ever imagine. He stayed quietly at my feet throughout our hour-long meeting, sometimes slowly sitting-up in for another scratch.

Now, I hafta ask you -- First -- is that not a life worth caring about, investing in and adopting into a loving home? And Second -- were you the one who threw him in the dumpster?